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Governor Lincoln D. Chafee and Michael Lewis, Director of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, today released a time-lapse video showing the $6.4 million replacement of the Barton Corner Bridge on the Warwick/West Warwick town line. The bridge, which carries I-95 over one of the state’s busiest commercial corridors along Route 2, was replaced during an 11-day period in August.

Watch the amazing video below

Using accelerated bridge construction, the contractor, Warwick’s D’Ambra Construction, built two halves of the bridge on land adjacent to the overpass and then moved them into place. Accelerating the construction process allowed the bridge to be replaced in less than one month versus two full construction seasons if conventional methods were used.

“Strengthening our transportation infrastructure has been a cornerstone of my administration, and I am proud to see Rhode Island taking such an innovative step forward with this project,” Governor Chafee said. “Investing in our infrastructure is critical to continuing our economic recovery as a state, as well as improving the quality of life for Rhode Islanders.”

“This project was a great success for the State of Rhode Island,” Director Lewis said. “Not only did we replace a critical piece of our infrastructure, but we did so with minimal disruption to traffic and to the surrounding community during construction. We will continue to explore new technologies such as this to complete projects more efficiently and further reduce impacts to the everyday driver.”

The decision to pursue accelerated construction on this project came with safety and environmental benefits. Traditional construction would have required near daily lane closures on I-95 and Route 2. Instead, traffic congestion was kept to a minimum by shifting lanes on the interstate and limiting full closures of Route 2 to just four temporary periods while the bridges were demolished and installed.

Traffic management was also aided by www.dot.ri.gov/bartoncorner a special website dedicated to the Barton Corner Bridge project. It included real-time updates on road closures and detours, as well as live cameras to see the work taking place.

The former bridge was built in 1958 and in an advanced state of deterioration prior to replacement. A steel shoring system had to be added to prevent a reduction in carrying capacity, as its main girders had been struck by oversized vehicles, requiring lane shifts for both I-95 North and South. The new bridge raises the height of the structure to reduce the likelihood of these types of crashes in the future.